You’ve heard it before – if you’re in business, you need a blog. But do you have the right business blog strategy to take your business to the stars? Or is your approach to blogging destined to fail miserably and waste you time and money in the process?
Sit up and pay attention! Here’s how to tell if your blog can take you where you want to go or not.
Business Blog Strategy Matters
Blogging without intent is pointless. If you aren’t sure why your blog exists or specifically what it is supposed to accomplish, STOP.
Don’t fly blind. You need the right strategy. The point of a blog is not just to say you have one or to magically bring millions of hits to your website overnight. A business blog strategy that works is one that carefully considers your niche, your business, and your audience – and one that properly understands what a blog is for and what it is not for.
Not sure what I mean? Totally lost yet? Still unsure what the point of a blog is and why you need a strategy? Then your blog might be destined to fail, and you need to know how it can be fixed. Here’s how you can tell.
Signs of a Broken Business Blog Strategy
1. You think your blog posts should sell.
Newsflash: blog posts are intended for many things, but selling is not one of them. Do blog posts help your bottom line? Of course! But not in the way you think. Blogs are intended to retain customers and attract potential customers – NOT to convert leads into sales. If this is your mentality, slow down and rethink your business blog strategy.
2. You post it and leave it.
Blogging is about engaging in the ongoing conversation. Don’t just post a blog to your website and expect it to start making you money. Monitor the comments and respond. Post it to your social sites and ask people what they think. Then listen to their feedback and respond. Keep the conversation going, or your blog will fail.
3. You blog about your business.
Do you really think your customers or staff members want to read about your business happenings? Save your company updates for occasional social media posting. Your blog is for solving the problems of your readers and providing interesting information to better their lives. If your business blog strategy includes writing on these interesting and helpful topics, your readers will share your posts and eventually buy from you. If not, it’s curtains for your blog.
4. You blog about your products and services.
Again, blogging is a free service you provide your readers. Even a hint of product promotion or advertising, and you can guarantee no one will share your blog posts or even read them.
5. You think blogging a few times a year is enough.
Your readers have a lot of resources competing for their interest and time. Their newsfeeds are clogged with tons of things to think about. How are they going to remember you if you never post? Or if they do like your stuff and remember you, do you think they will keep checking back if you only post every other month? Knowing how often to blog is unique to your situation, but it should be regular, consistent, and appropriate. I recommend at least once a month, but for some it might be daily or weekly.
6. You blog only for SEO.
Don’t get me wrong. You need to know your SEO keywords and target them in your blogs. Do it. However, if your business blog strategy revolves around cramming keywords into semi-meaningful sentences to try to game the Google algorithm, you won’t have any readers. Be real, be organic, be authentic. Well-written blogs build credibility, grow a tribe of loyal followers, and drive traffic. SEO log jams might get clicked on, but then they get clicked OFF.
7. Lastly, you expect to win in a few weeks.
I’m sorry. I don’t want to pop your balloon. But smash-hit blogs are not overnight successes. You can’t crank out blogs for a few weeks or months and expect to see a revenue stream. It takes months and even years to grow a readership, find your voice, and eventually convert that traffic into revenue. It will happen, but only if your business blog strategy is focused on the long game. Your blog will pay for itself in spades!
If your business blog strategy is broken, don’t throw it out – fix it! Find interesting topics, listen to the feedback, engage your audience, write consistently, do your marketing elsewhere, and then watch the results come pouring in. A healthy blog strategy will attract new people to your website long after each post is written.
It’s all about the conversation, so tell us what you think about these tips. Any warning signs we left out? Share the post if you feel it might help someone down the line!
